The Girl Who Played With Fire

Mikael Blomkvist, crusading journalist and publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation between Eastern Europe and Sweden, implicating well-known and highly placed members of Swedish society, business, and government.

But he has no idea just how explosive the story will be until, on the eve of publication, the two investigating reporters are murdered. And even more shocking for Blomkvist: the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to Lisbeth Salander--the troubled, wise-beyond-her-years genius hacker who came to his aid in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and who now becomes the focus and fierce heart of The Girl Who Played with Fire.

As Blomkvist, alone in his belief in Salander's innocence, plunges into an investigation of the slayings, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous hunt in which she is the prey, and which compels her to revisit her dark past in an effort to settle with it once and for all.

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Excellent follow-up to the first book. Salander's mysterious background is finally revealed, and the mystery develops more and more layers as the novel progresses. There's an implicit critique of misogyny, the police force, and the media circuses that develop around sensational cases. The book ended on quite the cliffhanger--I can't wait to move on to the third installment.

I read the first book in this series and enjoyed it. Although it had some disturbing things in it, they were kept in the background and the mystery was the main objective. This next book brought those things to the forefront, however, and I just can't read two more books about women being abused by men at this time. Perhaps I will try to read this book at some later date, but not now. For now I shall choose lighter books. :)

I_sing_the_Body_Electric
Aug 27, 2014

This second book focuses more on Lisbeth Salander, which I loved, and introduces newer characters. I agree that this book drags a bit, especially in the middle, but the ending has a great cliffhanger. Not as good as the first book but still good.

A bittersweet read. This was the best of the 3 books, but author Larsson's death means that I will never meet Camilla in the next trilogy. People who only saw the movies are at least blissfully ignorant of Camilla's existence.

Of the three books of Stieg's trilogy, like the movie (the Swedish version, that is) not the best, but definitely worth the read. This one ties the first and final together, while fleshing out the character of Lisbeth Salander, and explaining the background of her menacious father, a required part of the story.

I started with this, the second book in the series, as I had already seen the film version of the first book. I enjoyed this book, but it is very wordy and at times overly detailed and dull, and I didn't get into it until late in the second half. I still want to read "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" even though I saw the movie to see if it would help tie everything together.

This was a great sequel. As a previous reader commented, the beginning was slow and really unnecessary. The author used 75 pages to say what could have been done in 10.

However, once you get to around page 100, you will not be able to put this book down. When you finish it, you will race to the library and kick yourself because you forgot to put the third book on hold, and will seriously consider just buying it because you won't be able to wait 2-3 days for your book to come in!

Summary

The much abused superwoman Lisbeth Salander finds the man who is the root of her troubles or does he find her first and will she live to tell about it ... ?

SAPPHIREBEAR15
Jul 05, 2012

On the eve of publisher Mikael Blomkvist's story about sex trafficking between Eastern Europe and Sweden, two investigating reporters are murdered. And even more shocking for Mikael Blomkvist: the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to Lisbeth Salander--the troubled, wise-beyond-her-years genius hacker who came to his aid years before.